3. CATARNEIGH II

CATARNEIGH

The day had finally arrived. I woke up and looked at the calandar on the wall. The 31st of August was here. It also meant that tomorrow was school. After I got dressed, I went down stairs (I'm not a pjamma person).

Once I was downstairs, I went into the Front Room to wait for everyone, or more specifically Rose. Once we were all ready, it was time to go. My mum came into the room carrying ash-like powder and she stood by the fire.

'We're using Floo Powder.' she said.

Relief spread through me. Even though you still left as though you were getting thrown into suffocated darkness, Floo Powder was a much better experience than Apparation, which I had experienced last year.

The first person to step into the fireplace was my mum, then it was my dad, then Heather, then Rose. I was the last. We all came out in the same place- Flourish and Blotts.

I looked around the shop. It was pretty big. The floor was black and so was the walls. The entire room was covered in book shelves which I could swear reached the ceiling. The entire shop was packed full of people, buying books, and making noise. I decided to stay near my family just in case I got lost. My dad looked at the list of the books I needed.

'The first one I think we'll get is Standard Book of Spells.'

'Er, Dad?' asked Rose, looking around the room. 'You're not going to make us search the whole shop just for a couple of books, are you?'

My dad chuckled. 'Of course not, Rose. We'll use the Accio Charm.'

I watched as my dad took out his wand.

'Accio Standard Book of Spells: Grade One.'

I looked up to see a book that must have come off the top shelf float down into my dad's hands. Once it landed in his hands, he passed it to me. At first I was hesitant to take it. This book was three times bigger than any normal book, but once I had took it, I was surprised to realise how light it really was. My dad noticed my surprise.

'The Lucemus Charm. Makes everything heavy seem light.'

Once I had all the books I needed, I payed for them and we went to get the other supplies I needed. After an hour and a half (half an hour of Rose wanting to go into every shop we passed until I told her we were here for me) I only needed one more thing-

'I still need a wand.'

'Go to Ollivander's. Everyone gets their wands from there. You don't mind going by yourself, do you? We've got to get something.' said my mum.

'Sure.' I said. I watched as my family walked off and I walked towards Ollivander's Wand Shop.

The shop was like any other shop. It was rectangular with a three-part window. On the door faded gold letters read: Ollivander's Wand Shop; Makers of fine wands since 382 BC. I slowly opened the door and when I stepped in, I got the shock of my life.

The inside was completely different to the outside. First off, the rectangular shape was gone and it was replaced by a hexagon shape. The floor was a sandy beach colour and the walls were a muddy brown colour. Wands lay messily on shelves which seemed to slope down. In fact, the actual walls seemed to slope down. In the middle of the room was a semi-circle counter with a bell on it. I walked over to the bell and pressed it. I wanted patiently. Nothing happened. I pressed it again and suddenly-

Mr Ollivander had white hair and pale blue eyes which seemed to shine in the darkness of the shop. He also spoke with a squeaky voice.

'Aha! Try this.' Ollivander handed me the wand.

I aimed it at a row of boxes- they all my tumbling down. I quickly put the wand down, not sure if I was meant to make the boxes fall.

'No, no!' Ollivander handed me another wand.

I did the same again only the outcome of this wand was smoke.

'Not this time. Let me see...try this.' Ollivander handed me my third wand. The moment I touched it, it glowed a bright golden colour for a few seconds and then gradually faded. 'Well, I think we've found you a wand.' said Ollivander, happily. He wrapped it in a blue box and handed it to me again. After saying thank you, I left the shop with my new wand.

I walked out of the shop to find my family standing outside. I looked like they only went to buy Heather and Rose a book. Soon, we were on our way back home. I wouldn't let my sisters touch my wand as I was afraid they'd break it (knowing them, they would).

Once we were back home, I looked at the clock. It was ages until 11 AM but that still didn't stop me from being excited for tomorrow.